


Every Day I Pray (for You)

by curimuch



Series: Book 2 (Mother 3 AU fan Novel) [2]
Category: Mother 3
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Based on The Audacious March, Characters Are Adults, Codependency, Fictional Religion & Theology, Flashbacks, Hope vs. Despair, Hopeful Ending, Introspection, Loneliness, M/M, Plans For The Future, Suicidal Thoughts, Twincest, intimacy in the second chapter, the angsty kind
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:14:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28940532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curimuch/pseuds/curimuch
Summary: Tazmilly's old residents wanted the cursed twins gone, but the gods forgotten by the booming town protected them. They had grown up through the disadvantages set against them for eight long years, and still Tazmilly shoved them and the draconic symbol away. Lucas prayed for he and his twin to make it through, every day he prayed for a good future that finally arrived. He reflects on a trial that shook his brittle faith; A time when his twin was gravely hurt on a trip with Fuel, and  how the village shoved him away when he sought help."Why do you keep us alive?" Evolved into words so full of love that he could now manifest them as power. "Thank you...I understand."
Relationships: Claus/Lucas (Mother 3)
Series: Book 2 (Mother 3 AU fan Novel) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2090361
Kudos: 4





	Every Day I Pray (for You)

_ Please, God. I'm sorry, but...please help me. Please. I don't want my brother to die. I promise—I  _ **_swear_ ** _ that I will never curse your existence ever again! I-I really...need… _

On the way to the sanctuary, Lucas thought about his pleads to God when he was eleven years old. It was the time he truly forged a relationship with God, but not yet to the sanctuary, that came about eight years later. Back when he was eleven, his wishes were answered in the gifted form of Arrow Lizards that led him to where he needed to go in haste. He acknowledged his direct action in taking the guidance with Boney to rescue his twin. Ever since then, Lucas took the time to pray before the day was over. 

Although that was a wide window to pray directly under the symbol of the twin dragons, today Lucas was making his way to the building later than usual. The sun was setting, the orange dyed sky signaled when the chimeras would come out to roam; not that he feared them. It was just that… he was all dressed up and should’ve gone home, prayed at home, but he felt an obligation to go through the forest to the sanctuary first. So much sudden fortune had come to him in comparison to the past; he now had PSI and the Magypsies were quite kind. He wanted to pray in thanks, not in need after all of the difficult years.

Aeolia and Ionia were generous to him for being a surprise visitor; they had given him new clothes that were white and yellow, and he had a pink cloth that popped at the top of his head. The vibrant cloth held his now shiny and curly ponytail up high similar to how Nana had hers. His hair had more body and swayed left to right with his movement. His pants were fit and yellow, like they conjured it out of magic, and his blouse was white and poofy. The buttoned frills went up his neck; he felt so fancy like never before. 

He was very careful to not splash up mud or kick up dirt. The shoes he had were quite hardy and tolerant at least; and good for running. Screams in the distance was the test to the advertisement. Without a second thought, Lucas ran in the direction he was already walking in.    
  
“Dude, don’t slip!! I-I can’t!”   
  
“Where are you going--you’re terrible! Ahhh!”

“Just go!!”

Two boys and a girl, and one male child had scurried away without further words. With his enhanced hearing he could hear the girl at least stayed with the other boy. Lucas extended his metal staff that was his weapon and saw the offending chimera; a Muttshroom. Canines had the claws and the fangs to cause the blood splatter he saw in the road. Lucas threw a stone against the hide of the dog and brandished his staff for a fight. PSI was a useful tool, but so far only Claus was known to have it, and he was advised by his twin to keep it that way as long as possible.

But it might only be a four day record...

The dog was easily baited with the small stone and leap forward. Lucas slid around the dog with evident experience and beckoned it toward him off the road, but not in the bushes. The dog came for him again, spores trailing behind it. A suspicious gust of wind made the yellow dust go away and in one swift motion, Lucas swung the pole into its rib knocking it over. The dog’s flared head made it helplessly flail twice too much, Lucas dove the pole into its throat, and quickly again between its ribs. He paced himself for a moment to check if it was dead… and twitching mushroom cap aside, it was gone. Lucas shrunk his versatile weapon in the size of a baton and let it hang off of his wrist. He then dragged the chimera toward and into the bushes, lest its spores would harm people taking a simple stroll.

“Hey??” Lucas called out with a heightened voice as he hurried toward the sanctuary. “Are you alright--ah!” A short teen girl popped out of the stone door with desperation on her face, and her candy red hair all over the place. Leaves and twigs stuck out of it and… looking down she had skinned knees, so she wasn’t the one presumably clawed or bitten. 

“I dragged my friend inside...Please help!” Lucas followed her inside without hesitation and saw an older boy, perhaps fourteen or fifteen years of age. He wore baggy clothes and hid his auburn hair under a beanie with a smiley face with Xs for eyes as its main design. Lucas could see the boy desperately clutching his waist, blood was coming out of it considerably. The eldest of the people indoors ran and got on his knees to be as close to the source as possible. Fortunately it did not get on his clothes.

Four day streak it is… 

His hands hovered over the wound and glowed with bright blue light. This shared kindness went to work. The chimera dog had torn a chunk of flesh but it remained with the boy. It was a gruesome sight, muscle and tissue was present, blood was pouring down his clothes that soaked it up, but once the light touched him, the hole closed. Tissue and muscle stitched together and beige skin followed suit, with the old falling to the floor… It was the first time Lucas healed such a major wound, and that was unfortunately a rather gross side effect it seemed. 

“There…” He still tried to treat it as more normal than miraculous. “Um…” But not even he could keep that up, that old skin was weird and creepy and… He had a small bag with him. In that bag he had disposable tissue from Angie’s bakery he now worked in. He picked up the disposed skin within the tissue and gave it to the child. “Just throw it away yourself… and don’t think about it thereafter.” The boy’s shaky hand took the tissue and pocketed it, but his brown eyes did not leave Lucas’ of the same color, although his had a funny honey outline to it. “You’re okay--”   


“Y-yeah, but… how did...how did you…” He watched as Lucas gently sighed out, and his expression was just as tender. “Oh--um, thanks. T-thank you, I mean…” 

The girl hurried over to the opposite side and held his hand, but not in silence. “Thank you, m’am!! Thank you! It looked like he was gonna die!! I dunno how you did it, but thank you!”

Lucas fluttered his eyes to be called M’am, but… it was actually kind of perfect. These children didn’t know who he was and they didn’t understand PSI, maybe no one would believe them if they told their parents… So he nodded, with a growing smile at that. Earlier the shock made his voice higher but he could… clear his throat some, and consciously changed his voice going forward. 

“You’re quite brave… I’m glad you stayed with your friend. Normally I come here to pray before I go home…” He looked up at the dragon symbol above their heads. “But I should get you home before it gets too dark.” At this point, Lucas doubted that anyone would recognize him, he didn’t have heavy makeup like Ionia or Aeolia, but he had a very modest amount. They thickened his eyelashes, and gave him a thin coat of foundation with a light pink lipbalm. He looked like a brand new model for a magazine.

“Um,” the girl began. She admired the look for certain, almost wanted to ask for tips, but she was the brains of the trio that may not be anymore after that other boy abandoned them, and she stayed on topic. “You should pray first.”   
  
“Oh, I’m a bit of a rambler… But, the thing about praying is, you can do that anywhere.” He saw they were listening even with wandering eyes. “What’s caught your eye? The symbol up there?” He watched as the younger teens nodded. He looked up too, at the soft glow of the black and white dragons that circled each other. The setting sun was reflecting off it without hurting the eyes… “When I was young… I was told they protect the island although we cannot see them. And sometimes… you can hear voices in the wind… or the water will touch you to say hi.”   
  
It was the boy to speak up this time. He saw his gaping, gushing wound close by this person, he was going to believe every word she said to him. 

“Do the dragons speak to you?”   
  
“Not always with words, but with things that ‘just happen’. Like lizards that point out where you need to go… or if you’re in trouble, a frog may help you. Or like now, me. They try to help those who really need help… I just wanted to tell the dragons thank you, today, nothing more. So let’s go?”   
  
“Okay…” The teen boy agreed and got up with the help of his shorter friend. 

“Um, Miss, do you come here every day?”   
  
“More or less. If you want to come back… you should with an adult, okay? I’m not always here at the same time… and I cannot promise that I will be, but this place is open for everyone. Just wait by the door, I have to leave a note for Jonel…” There was blood on the floor he could do nothing about, and he would like for the kind man to not be startled. He disappeared into the back for a moment, and grabbed an old fashioned book, with an old fashioned feather pen. He tore the written letter out, rolled it up tightly and placed it into the entry way the man was sure to notice tomorrow morning. 

He then led the children out and down the road to Tazmilly. The stars were starting to come out, and he didn’t look up at them often enough… Part way down the road he sensed his twin coming over and closing in quickly. Fortunately, they can speak to one another telepathically, although they had yet to test the distance.

_ “Claus?” _ _  
_ _  
_ _ “Lucas? I was worried--” _ _  
_ _  
_ _ “I’m sorry. I’ll tell you all the details later. Just when you see me down the road… Pretend I’m a lady.” _ _  
_ _  
_ _ “A what-” _ _  
_ _  
_ _ “A lady.”  _ He could sense that Claus had slowed down and he couldn’t help but to laugh behind a hand for a quick moment. “Okay, looks like we’re reaching a safe zone and you can hurry along?”   
  
“Yeah, I can do that.” The boy gained some of his gruff attitude back. He felt babied, even if it was deserved, he was a little flustered by it. Worse, his friend holding his hand so tightly like she had a crush or something. “I’ll go ahead now. Let’s go home, Ems. Bye.” Like a cool-kid, he didn’t ask for a name, but it felt like he implied to see Lucas again someday. He dragged his friend along to keep her from saying anything and suddenly there was Claus in between them all. The redhead looked at the two kids who walked away and then up to Lucas with fluttering eyes.

_ “Like I said, Claus…” _ _  
_ _  
_ _ “Did...Aeolia do this?” _ _  
_ _  
_ _ “And Ionia, I got to meet Ionia today. They’re lovely.” _

“Hah.” Claus wasn’t mocking nor mad, he was impressed. He gave Lucas a quick walk around and stopped by his side to put an arm around him. “You feel like yourself.”   
  
“I feel like... me?” Lucas’ smile had crept back across his face, and he propped his blond hair under the back of his hand. If only he had earrings like Ionia had. Maybe next time. He didn’t understand by ‘like yourself’ meant, but… he understood it implied he was supposed to be like this some way. Claus nodded. 

“Yeah, you’re glowing with pride I…” He hadn’t seen in a very long time. He nearly touched his face, but he caught scent of the makeup and instead placed his large hands on his shoulders. He had a big smile on his face as well, even a bit of rosiness on his face, debating if he should compliment or not. Those sparkly hopeful eyes encouraged it out of him. “You’re beautiful. I mean, you always was--” He laughed at being lightly swatted on the head, his trademark ‘ducktail’ buffered. “I mean it!”

“No way… I looked like a haystack…” He watched as Claus shook his head in quick disagreement, it made him blush… But he no longer turned his head away when he did. Sometimes if he stared long enough, Claus would first; but only sometimes. Welp, Lucas turned his head, but not enough to hide that he was smiling. Claus curiously touching the bow made him look back at him with a humored quirked brow. 

“How’d they make your hair even longer?”

“With a warmed comb, it was pretty cool. Inspirational, actually.” He held Claus’ hands between his own. “How versatile our powers can be,” he said with a wide smile. “I’m so glad… I’m so happy. I feel like I can do anything...go anywhere… Like we could just… get up and go somewhere far away… Meet the rest of them, y’know? Did you know Mixolydia is on the other island?”   
  
“Well, we’re too big for that tub boat now, but that’s cool to know.” He had a sheepish smile to Lucas’ sheepish laugh. “Crazy idea I had back then…” He could admit it. He was on his  _ first _ meltdown when he constructed that not so safe plan. 

“Mm… I was still a scardy cat then.”   
  
“It’s good that you were, I could get impulsively outta hand, y’know that.” He was gently pulled into a hug that he relaxed into. “Just like this… just like then… You’ll hold me and… I will come back from the storm… You always rescue me…”

“Not alone…” Lucas added before he squeezed him. “Every day I prayed for you…But not today.”

Claus laughed, “huh?”

“That sounded ominous,” he sheepishly said. “What I mean is… I haven’t had to  _ worry _ . I’ve been thinking…” He trailed off, breaking off the hug, taking his hand and leading the way home. “About all the praying I was doing… About when I even started doing all that.”

“When?” He squeezed Lucas hand when Lucas had hesitation, ‘it’s okay’ that grip said.

“When you first ran away…” Vague, but Claus understood.

“Mm.” He looked at Lucas too, and his green eyes were still warm. Lucas always touched that jagged scar on his stomach like it was brand new. Lucas really thought about it every day…? No surprise. He was very close to death that day, and he managed to not have another death scare like that until he was eighteen. 

“And I felt like… we’ve been taken care of since. Even when our hearts were cold, or completely broken by everyone treating us so cruelly… even when life didn’t feel like worth living… Some miracle would happen and… all those tiny, enormous miracles lead to today. And although I couldn’t recount it all to the dragons today, I gave some thanks.”   
  
“Those lil buggers got in the way?” He asked, but then decided on something next. He halted and pulled Lucas toward where they’ve come from.   
  
“More so a muttshroom did. Ah, no, we don’t have to go back… It’s a mess in there.”   
  
“What happened?”   
  
“They didn’t do anything. The boy had a terrible wound, torn deep into his muscle… so I healed him; he would’ve died if I didn’t. I doubt anyone will know it was  _ Lucas _ , though. Huh?” He was surprised Claus still wanted to go the opposite way of home.

“We can just yoink some spring water and clean up in there.” Now he led them down the road in linked hands. “And I’ll pray with you. I need to, after all these years.” He turned his head back as he continued walking, a cheeky pearly grin, but there was a hint of nervousness behind it. “Think the dragons will be mad at me?”

“Not at all… They’ll be happy. After all, you could hear them first, y’know? In the wind… when you would dip your hand in the water sometimes… They were there for you.” 

Claus never thought about it that way... And it gave him a feeling of great comfort to realize it. Someone else forgave him… looked out for him, maybe even believed in his potential… Maybe the dragon was giving them a suggestion, that feeling to explore that they had. Maybe so far away from people, the noise and bustle of Tazmilly, they could fully hear them. 

“I have other things to tell you too…” About that needle they saw in Osohe. The one that shook Claus to his core for some reason that night, outright blinded his vision for a short time that only his ears worked. Aeolia told Lucas an incomplete tale he wanted to share with his twin in the sanctuary. 

“Alright.”

Then on, they traveled in reflective silence, finding the words to tell each other, as well as to tell god. Inside of the dark sanctuary, it was Lucas this time to light the room with his blue glow in his hand. Right then, he illuminated the blood on the floor that partially dried. Claus whistled a long one, a habit he picked up from Fuel. Lucas wasn’t exaggerating in his worrywart way, that boy would’ve died had he lost anymore blood; closed wound or not. Claus lit the room with his orange light, and then the church’s symbol lit up in a never before seen flash.    
  
“Whoa--” It startled Claus. The lights in their hands went out in surprise, and still, the twin dragons lit the whole room anyway. It was breathtaking to them both. “Lucas--”   
  
“That’s new to me…! Um.” He gave a curt bow, and Claus nervously mimicked him. “Hello…! We want to clean up the mess um... I guess...We could a little afterward…” He looked at his twin, then back up to the symbol, the lighting came from the eyes of the hanging dragons. Gold on the white and teal on the black dragon… Claus nodded when Lucas looked at him, then he cleared his throat.

“Guess...y’really wanted me here then? I’m Sorry… The fog over my mind is gone. I’m not chasing money anymore… I’m not blindly killing creatures anymore… It hasn’t been long but… I’m doing better. Truly. I’m here if anything…” Claus had a lot of nervous energy to give, and Lucas gave him the space to do it. He removed the note he left for Jonel and kept watch at the door. ...No one should come here, hopefully. “Guess… I guess this is my way of prayer?” He didn’t know, and he looked down, and then up again. 

“It can be in any way, Claus…” Lucas encouraged, standing by his side. He placed his smaller hand over his heart beat.

“I… made a lot of mistakes. I stared death in the face a few times… and I didn’t think about it as you lookin’ out for me. For us. Looking up at you… it feels like looking at a mirror of us.” He was even wearing black and green today, the coincidence was a little eerie for he always wore black these days. “I never...I never took the time to talk about this…” His voice was starting to waver. It really was like staring at his years in the face, confronting it. Lucas squeezed his hand under both of his in the comfort he always had for him, and Claus continued. 

“Ah… Um…” He didn’t want to anymore, and there was nowhere to sit when his legs felt so weak… 

“It’s okay…” Lucas quietly said, a hand now caressing his face, wiping the lone tear that escaped the corner of his eye, but it was only that one. Claus managed to trap the rest, and nod them back inside. One step at the time… Claus had been getting it out of his heart a day at a time. He looked up to the eyes of the dragons and said, “Thank you.” He turned to Claus, and in a hushed voice said, “Let’s clean the altar and then we’ll have somewhere to sit. ...Aeolia told me some things to tell you… It was important.” 

“Some things, huh… Aeolia wants me to go all the way over there, I bet.”   


“You won the pot luck,” Lucas joked. Glad to hear him laugh some. When they stepped out the lights went out. He couldn’t help but look over his shoulder, even as Claus led him away to the spring water. 


End file.
